Jean Sibelius (Jean Sibelius) |

Jean Sibelius

Sibelius. Tapiola (orchestra conducted by T. Beecham)

… to create on an even larger scale, to continue where my predecessors left off, to create contemporary art is not only my right, but also my duty. J. Sibelius

“Jan Sibelius belongs to those of our composers who most truthfully and effortlessly convey the character of the Finnish people with their music,” wrote his compatriot, critic K. Flodin, about the remarkable Finnish composer in 1891. The work of Sibelius is not only a bright page in the history of the musical culture of Finland, the fame of the composer went far beyond the borders of his homeland.

The flourishing of the composer’s work falls on the end of the 7th – beginning of the 3th century. – the time of the growing national liberation and revolutionary movement in Finland. This small state was at that time part of the Russian Empire and experienced the same moods of the pre-stormy era of social change. It is noteworthy that in Finland, as in Russia, this period was marked by the rise of national art. Sibelius worked in different genres. He wrote 2 symphonies, symphonic poems, XNUMX orchestral suites. Concerto for violin and orchestra, XNUMX string quartets, piano quintets and trios, chamber vocal and instrumental works, music for dramatic performances, but the composer’s talent manifested itself most clearly in symphonic music.

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Sibelius grew up in a family where music was encouraged: the composer’s sister played the piano, his brother played the cello, and Jan played first the piano and then the violin. Somewhat later, it was for this home ensemble that Sibelius’s early chamber compositions were written. Gustav Levander, bandmaster of the local brass band, was the first music teacher. The boy’s composing abilities showed up early – Yang wrote his first small play at the age of ten. However, despite serious success in music studies, in 1885 he became a student at the law faculty of the University of Helsingfors. At the same time, he studies at the Music Institute (dreaming in his heart of a career as a virtuoso violinist), first with M. Vasiliev, and then with G. Challat.

Among the youthful works of the composer, works of a romantic direction stand out, in the mood of which paintings of nature occupy an important place. It is noteworthy that Sibelius gives an epigraph to the youthful quartet – a fantastic northern landscape written by him. Images of nature give a special flavor to the program suite “Florestan” for piano, although the composer’s focus is on the image of a hero in love with a beautiful black-eyed nymph with golden hair.

Sibelius’s acquaintance with R. Cajanus, an educated musician, conductor, and an excellent connoisseur of the orchestra, contributed to the deepening of his musical interests. Thanks to him, Sibelius becomes interested in symphonic music and instrumentation. He has a close friendship with Busoni, who at that time was invited to work as a teacher at the Musical Institute of Helsingfors. But, perhaps, the acquaintance with the Yarnefelt family was of the greatest importance for the composer (3 brothers: Armas – conductor and composer, Arvid – writer, Ero – artist, their sister Aino later became the wife of Sibelius).

To improve his musical education, Sibelius went abroad for 2 years: to Germany and Austria (1889-91), where he improved his musical education, studying with A. Becker and K. Goldmark. He carefully studies the work of R. Wagner, J. Brahms and A. Bruckner and becomes a lifelong adherent of program music. According to the composer, “music can fully manifest its influence only when it is given direction by some poetic plot, in other words, when music and poetry are combined.” This conclusion was born precisely at the time when the composer was analyzing various methods of composition, studying the styles and samples of the outstanding achievements of European composer schools. On April 29, 1892, in Finland, under the direction of the author, the poem “Kullervo” (based on a plot from “Kalevala”) was performed with great success for soloists, choir and symphony orchestra. This day is considered the birthday of Finnish professional music. Sibelius repeatedly turned to the Finnish epic. The suite “Lemminkäinen” for a symphony orchestra brought the composer a truly worldwide fame.

In the late 90s. Sibelius creates the symphonic poem “Finland” (1899) and the First Symphony (1898-99). At the same time, he creates music for theatrical performances. The most famous was the music for the play “Kuolema” by A. Yarnefeld, especially “The Sad Waltz” (the mother of the protagonist, dying, sees the image of her dead husband, who, as it were, invites her to dance, and she dies to the sounds of the waltz). Sibelius also wrote music for performances: Pelléas et Mélisande by M. Maeterlinck (1905), Belshazzar’s Feast by J. Prokope (1906), The White Swan by A. Strindberg (1908), The Tempest by W. Shakespeare (1926) .

In 1906-07. he visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, where he met with N. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. Glazunov. the composer pays great attention to symphonic music – for example, in 1900 he writes the Second Symphony, and a year later his famous concerto for violin and orchestra appears. Both works are distinguished by the brightness of the musical material, the monumentality of the form. But if the symphony is dominated by light colors, then the concerto is full of dramatic images. Moreover, the composer interprets the solo instrument – the violin – as an instrument equivalent in terms of the power of expressive means to the orchestra. Among the works of Sibelius in the 1902s. the music inspired by Kalevala reappears (symphonic poem Tapiola, 20). For the last 1926 years of his life, the composer did not compose. However, creative contacts with the musical world did not stop. Many musicians from all over the world came to see him. The music of Sibelius was performed in concerts and was an adornment of the repertoire of many outstanding musicians and conductors of the 30th century.

L. Kozhevnikova